Spyware Doctor is a spyware removal product for Microsoft Windows developed by PC Tools.

Spyware Doctor scans a PC for spyware, examining files on the hard drive, objects in memory, the Windows registry and cookies, and then attempts to quarantine or remove recognized threats. It also includes real-time protection which attempts to block threats from being saved to the disk, set to startup automatically, suspicious programs running and other detection including new toolbars and add-ons for web browsers.

Spyware Doctor is designed for Windows 2000 and XP. Spyware Doctor also supports 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

It is normally purchased as a yearly subscription which includes new versions and updates, and is available online as well as in retail stores. PC Tools, like other security companies such as McAfee and Symantec, has now implemented an automatic renewal system whereby customer’s subscriptions are renewed every year automatically until canceled.

Spyware Doctor is not free, but a free scan version is offered, providing real-time protection and scans for spyware. Only the full version is capable of removing spyware (though a user can use the free version to locate where the spyware is and then manually remove the files and registry entries themselves). Spyware often includes both files located on the hard drive and entries in the Windows registry.

Spyware Doctor Starter Edition was included in the Google Pack in March 2007. This version allows scan and removal of threats using an older version of the program, limited real-time protection, but a database with only 60% of the definition files, which does not include some viral threats.

Spyware Doctor received the PC World Best Buy award in the October 2007 issue of the magazine saying “PC Tools’ Spyware Doctor 5.0 was the clear winner, outperforming the competition at detecting and removing our test set of adware and spyware samples.”

Spyware Doctor has received several Editors’ Choice awards from PC Magazine, including one for Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus 5.5 in 2008.The product has also received numerous other awards from around the globe.

Not all reviews have been positive and early versions of Spyware Doctor 5.0, which the company rewrote from scratch, received some negative commentary. CNET’s Download.com reviews, justifies the 3-star rating by saying, “in our trial scans, Spyware Doctor repeatedly flagged several dozen harmless cookies as potential threats, more than any other antispyware product we tested. We were also unable to learn more about each threat or why Spyware Doctor flagged each.”

Battling bitingly cold weather and a lack of oxygen, rescue workers clawed with their bare hands through the rubble of homes and schools toppled by the 6.9 magnitude quake that hit Yushu county in Qinghai province on Wednesday.

Officials said medical teams and supplies such as tents and quilts were on their way to the zone, where doctors set up makeshift hospitals to treat victims of the deadliest quake in China in two years.

But thousands spent another night without shelter in freezing temperatures after the quake destroyed almost all the mudbrick and wooden houses in Jiegu, the local capital, and flattened schools.

“I lost my husband and I lost my house,” Gandan, a Jiegu resident, told AFP, her son and daughter at her side. All three were living in a tent with other people, with one bowl of barley to share.

“We don’t know what to do, we have no food,” she said, standing by the tent a stone’s throw from her collapsed mud and brick house.

China quake devastates stunned town

The number who perished rose to 760, including dozens of children, while 11,477 were injured, the official Xinhua news agency said, quoting rescue coordinators.

The death toll is expected to rise further, with 243 still buried, and local officials say they were short of medical supplies and large digging equipment.

“The rescue job in this disaster zone faces many difficulties,” said Miao Chonggang, of the China Earthquake Administration, which is coordinating more than 7,000 rescuers.

President Hu Jintao cut short a Latin American tour and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao postponed a trip to Southeast Asia.

Hu told a news conference in Brasilia the quake was “a huge calamity which resulted in big losses of human life”.

Chinese president calls quake ‘huge calamity’

Wen on Thursday visited the quake zone, an underdeveloped area of the Tibetan plateau known as the “Roof of the World”.

“The top priority is to save people. We will never give up even if there is only a slim hope,” Wen told a meeting at the quake-relief headquarters in Yushu, according to Xinhua.

Soldiers, police and firefighters used shovels, iron bars and bare hands to dig through the mangled piles of concrete and rubble from 15,000 toppled homes.

Foreign governments offered help as international aid officials warned that the priorities would be providing shelter, medical aid, food and water and ensuring sanitation to prevent the spread of disease.

Meanwhile tens of thousands of Internet users have been showing their solidarity with the quake victims by posting virtual flowers in online “mourning halls” and donating to appeals, Xinhua said.

Jiegu lies around 800 kilometres (500 miles) by road from the provincial capital Xining, about 4,000 metres above sea level, meaning rescue workers from outside the region struggled to cope with the lack of oxygen.

The government said electricity and phone links had been restored to dozens of towns but the difficult terrain, including deep canyons, and the bitter cold and remoteness of the area were hampering rescue efforts.

“There are 10 people in my family and only four of us escaped. One of my relatives died. All the others are buried under the rubble,” Samdrup Gyatso, 17, told Xinhua after his two-storey home crumbled.

Facts on China quake zone

Among the dead were at least 66 pupils and 10 teachers, Xinhua said, quoting local authorities, as grieving parents waited for news near the ruins of the schools, where discarded school books and clothes lay.

Xinhua said a baby boy had been born in a tent near the epicentre shortly after the quake.

“It must be the first life that came to the world after the disaster,” Huang Changmei, a doctor, told the agency.

“The baby brought hope to the ruined place.”

The devastation was reminiscent of the huge quake in May 2008 in Sichuan province, where thousands of children were among 87,000 deaths when their shoddily-constructed schools collapsed.

Schoolbooks strewn in China quake rubble as children perish

Xu Mei, of the education ministry, denied a media report that around 200 children had been buried in the ruins of a primary school in Wednesday’s quake.

In Beijing, Zou Ming, the head of the government’s disaster relief department, said nearly 40,000 tents, 120,000 articles of clothing, 120,000 quilts and food were being dispatched.

Oil prices jumped 4.2% to settle at $102.96 a barrel. That’s the highest closing price since May 10, when prices ended the day at $103.88 a barrel.

The Strait of Hormuz is a critical shipping lane, with 17 million barrels of oil per day passing through in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

That’s about one sixth of global oil production and nearly 20% of all the oil traded worldwide. Iran itself only exports about 2.2 million barrels of oil a day.

Just last week, Iran issued its initial threat to shut the shipping lane linking the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman. Iran’s southern coast borders that entire area.

“If Iran oil is banned, not a single drop of oil will pass through Hormuz Strait,” Iran’s 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said at that time, according to the Iran State News Agency.

The new Iranian threat followed increased sanctions from Western countries to limit the amount of oil that Iran can export. In particular, the U.S. government tightened restrictions on companies that provide Iran with equipment and expertise necessary to run its oil and chemical industries.
Iran test-fires missiles – CNN

Beutel said that Iran increased tensions in the last couple of days by launching missiles capable of striking targets on land and sea.
Merrill Lynch has projected that a shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz could cause a $40 spike in oil prices.
However, in order for Iran to choke off the strait, its military would have to take on the U.S. Fifth Fleet, which is based in nearby Bahrain.
Iran’s military spending is equal to only 2.5% of its gross domestic product, according to the CIA. So it’s not a given that Iran has the firepower to take on the United States, a much larger country that spends more than 4% of its GDP on the military.
“[Shutting down the strait] won’t happen because the U.S. can’t allow it to happen and Iran knows this,” said Dan Dicker, a former oil trader and author of ‘Oil’s Endless Bid: Taming the Unreliable Price of Oil to Secure Our Economy.’
“The Iranians rattle sabers every other Thursday,” said Dicker, though he added that Iran’s posturing could still add fuel to a volatile situation and drive up prices.
“The geopolitical climate on oil is fragile as hell and there’s not a lot of capacity,” said Dicker, who projects that oil could rise to $125 a barrel this year.
Early last year, uprisings in Libya led to oil production disruptions and surging oil prices. Prior to the unrest, Libya was producing roughly 1.6 million barrels per day, compared with Saudi Arabia’s current daily output of around 9 million barrels per day.

Oil prices stayed above $100 for nearly 12 weeks straight before easing back. And Libya’s production is still nowhere near its pre-unrest levels.